AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

SimonJack "Blessed Event" is a parody of its time and of the media and entertainment of its day including newspapers and radio. But one wonders how exaggerated it really is. The sensationalism of the press and rise of yellow journalism was a frequent part of movie plots in the 1930s. But this one treats of another aspect as well – gossip. Lee Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, who quickly becomes a famous New York gossip columnist. The movie is billed as a drama and comedy. While there is comedy in Robets' character and some of the funny things he says, the drama of the film isn't lost on the audience. We soon feel the distastefulness of Roberts' gossip column. We soon see the inconsiderate character that he becomes. We soon see his ego and pride and relish for the power he has assumed. These are sad situations, and the film shows the tragic results of such power and behavior. Of course, amidst all of this we have occasional funny lines or clever comments. This film could be a biopic of a real person. Other reviewers have pointed this out. Roberts is as an obvious copy of Walter Winchell who was then on the rise as the king of gossip. Winchell was the original gossip columnist of Broadway and New York. He rose to such power through the press that politicians, the rich and famous, sports celebrities, gangsters, and actors feared him or tried to get close to him. Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons would become the Walter Winchells of Hollywood. Lee Tracy's high-pitched voice and rapid-fire delivery closely emulate Winchell's persona. Although carried to the extreme for this film, those also were natural characteristics of Tracy. For a time, he was a leading actor in great demand. Some of his real lifestyle was similar to Winchell's. He was arrogant and seemed to bathe in the power of his position. Tracy also lived a racy, reckless, self-centered life. His temper, rowdiness and bad manners earned him a "bad-boy" reputation. He was given the boot from MGM after a public incidence in Mexico during filming of a movie there. Tracy urinated in public off a balcony and got in fisticuffs with the police. His later roles about hard-bitten, muck-racking, sensationalist reporters soon wore thin with the public. Tracy returned to the stage and later ended up on television in supporting roles. He had a successful marriage and apparently tamed down before his 1968 death from cancer at age 70.Winchell's fortunes were quite different. From the mid-1930s on, his star continued to rise through the 1950s. He had his own radio show and his newspaper column was syndicated in more than 2,000 papers worldwide. Winchell was very controversial. He had powerful friends and enemies. He was the first media personality to attack Adolf Hitler and the rise of Nazism. He also hated Communism and attacked the National Maritime Union during World War II as being a communist front. He admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and was invited to the White House. He also liked J. Edgar Hoover. Winchell was one of the earliest and most outspoken supporters of civil rights for African Americans. He attacked the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. He also supported Sen. Joseph McCarthy's efforts to ferret out communists in Hollywood. Winchell held court at the Stork Club in New York for years. But by the late 1950s, his appeal began to wane. And, his power dropped quickly. His family life was unstable and unconventional and experienced sad deaths. He lived alone his last two years in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died of cancer at age 74 in 1968.In this movie, Tracy's Roberts says repeatedly, "Pride ain't power." He has a few funny lines. "I almost started to death for two weeks," was one. The story is all about so-called "entertainment journalism." The supporting cast are fine, with Mary Brian doing an excellent job as Gladys Price, Roberts' secretary and right-hand man. This movie is interesting in its snapshot of the time and its parodies. It has some historical value for that reason. The cast and production values are all good. And, it's somewhat entertaining.

mark.waltz Having a baby? With or without the benefit of marriage? Is the proud papa somebody not listed on the marriage certificate? If reporter Lee Tracy had actually interviewed perspective mothers, those are the type of questions that he'd ask in this brittle pre-code comedy about the lack of journalistic integrity that has fast-talker Tracy spoofing the position of scandal reporter.It is obvious that many people want to help contribute to the column, but nobody wants to be mentioned in it. Gossip columns and scandal sheets have been involved in the field of journalism ever since the first newspaper was created because as everybody knows, the public demands dirt, and they don't even care if it's true.This is a surprisingly excellent study of one man's immorality in his attempts to rise to the top, and he doesn't seem to care who gets hurt. Of course, he gets too big for his britches, and when he reveals the truth about a single radio singer's impending motherhood in the newspaper (after promising not to), he creates more enemies amongst the criminal element who are involved in the paternal side of the story.Tracy was one of the oddest leading men in the early 30's, but he was excellent for pre-code, remaining a star into the 1940's with fast- talking con-men and scoundrels in a series of low budget programmers. Ruth Donnelly is a riot as the newspaper's secretary, with Ned Sparks delightfully cranky as a fellow reporter. In his film debut, Dick Powell adds a realistic backdrop as a nightclub singer whose songs surround the scandalous atmosphere with period authenticity. To utilize recent events that attracted public attention, Tracy even mentions the Ruth Snyder electrocution, going into details of the last hours of the victim. Sparks makes an observation about a new medium called television which he is convinced will never take off. Among some of the witty dialog in this brisk screenplay is a conversation between Tracy and Donnelly, commenting on a poor Jewish woman who just called to report her pregnancy. He asks her, "Do you know how many Jews there are in New York?" Without batting an eyelash (but raising her eyebrows in mock disgust), she replies, "Oh, there must be dozens." Sparks, in a nightclub scene, notices a drunk and sarcastically snorts, "He must be doing it for the wife and kidneys." Emma Dunn, as Tracy's doting mother without an ounce of gossip in her, tells perennial dumbbell Allen Jenkins that her husband passed away ten years ago. "Bumped off?", Jenkins asks, and with absolute innocence, Dunn replies, "Yes. Off a ladder."

kidboots Movies don't come much better than this. Photoplay called it a "pippin" and "what talkie movies do best". Reporter George Moxley (Ned Sparks - "I feel like a stranded dogfish on the Barnegat shore" and no, he doesn't say that in this movie) comes back from holidays to find his column replacement Alvin Roberts (Tracy at his smart alecky best) is putting the newspaper back in circulation due to his muck raking column which predicts "blessed events" before they even happen!!! Almost one step ahead of him is his secretary (I just love Ruth Donnelly) whose job is largely taken up with diverting callers who are out for his blood and smoothing over libel suits ("we had two this week")!!! Roberts keeps his column and Moxley is given "Pets" - "if your pooch ever needs a midwife - call on me"!!!Mary Brian, who had the title of the "sweetest girl in pictures" proved that she was as she portrayed Alvin's long suffering girl, Gladys. In real life she was romantically linked with Dick Powell, who made his debut in this movie as the ego driven crooner, Bunny Harmon - similar to his real personality as Brian commented "he liked the ladies"!!Alvin comes unstuck (as Gladys always predicted) when a high profile singer, Dorothy Lane (Isabel Jewel from the original Broadway play) comes to plead with him not to print the story of her upcoming "blessed event" - she is not married but the man is. Alvin promises not to but speedily forgets as his inflated ego dreams of nationwide syndication. Jewel has a couple of big scenes and she plays them for all she is emotionally worth - you won't forget her pleadings. Of course Gladys is disgusted at his callous behaviour and calls their romance off.Allen Jenkins also plays one of the callers with murder on his mind but is persuaded to put his gun away in a stunning scene where Alvin holds centre stage in describing exactly what it is like to go to the electric chair. It sounds off putting but Tracy just dazzles!! Jenkins is a hired goon of sleazy Sam Gobell (Edwin Maxwell) who, as the movie comes to an end, just happens to be revealed as Dorothy's lover. Add to the mix Emma Dunn as Alvin's sweet mother, who loves nothing better than listening to the Bunny Harmon radio hour. Alvin, on the other hand, hates crooners and is over the moon when he can finally expose him as Herman Bunn!!!I can't understand why Isabel Jewel (who in real life was desperately in love with Lee Tracy) never became a star. Maybe she was just too versatile. "Blessed Event" was one of her first films and you just knew, when she entered the newsroom with a gun, there was going to be an intensely dramatic scene. Another memorable part she had was as the frightened "B" girl in "Marked Woman" and again as the almost inarticulate little seamstress riding to the guillotine in "A Tale of Two Cities".

broadway_melody_girl The main reason people I know won't watch classic movies is because they "move too slow". Everyone I know this all old films are super-long, slow moving affairs with no action. I can't wait to show them Blessed Event.Blessed Event (1932) is a terrifically fast, hilarious pre-code comedy with it's main character based on 30's tabloid writer Walter Winchell. Lee Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, the main character, who runs the "dirtiest" gossip column in New York, but events ensue that may have to cause him to give up his column.If you have an opportunity to watch this amazing movie, do so. If you are already a fan of classics you will love it, and even if you've never watched an old movie, this is a great movie for anyone, if you thought all old movies were squeaky clean, slow, boring, and innocent, you're in for a surprise.